Nado Natterings
A weekly column by David Axelson

27 May 2009 Issue #21

From high atop the world headquarters of ‘Nado Natterings,’ comes this week’s hopefully well-constructed column, which features Islander playoff news aplenty.

Girls Lacrosse Bests Valley Center in CIF First Round

By virtue of their No. 2 seed, the Coronado Girls Lacrosse Team will play on their home turf until the CIF Finals. The Islanders, with a gaudy 19-3 overall record and a perfect 10-0 mark in City Conference play, hosted Valley Center Friday in their first round game. The Islanders emerged with a 19-11 victory, which surprisingly was closer than the score might indicate.

Paced by four-goal games from both Kaitlyn Couture and Michaela Guerrrera, Coronado simply outscored Valley Center to take this contest. Both Anna Turpit and Jillian Reidy had three goals each, with single scores coming from Coco O’Brien, Sandy Shepherd, Alex Reidy, CJ Fisher and Melissa Humphrey. The first eight Islander goals were scored by eight different players.

“They were a good team and we knew going in they were going to be a good team,” said Coronado Head Coach Jessica Battle of her team’s first round opponent. “That’s one of the exciting things about girls lacrosse is that the teams are getting better and better. There is a real depth of talent. There will be quite a few upsets in the playoffs and no huge blowouts.”

With 8:17 remaining in the game, Coronado held a scant 14-11 lead and things weren’t looking overly upbeat for the home crowd. At about that point, Battle substituted All-American Humphrey into the all-important role of capturing the draw that follows each goal. That strategic move served to stymie the Valley Center offense. Coronado then resumed their offensive dominance, scoring the final five goals of the game.

“Melissa had a great game and she is such an unselfish player,” Battle said. “After the game I told her she needs to be a little more selfish. In the playoffs, she needs to score every opportunity she has.”Battle noted the fine defensive effort turned in by Kirsten Krock against Valley Center.

The Islanders return to their home field Tuesday evening when they face perennial lacrosse power Poway (make alliteration your friend) at 5:30 pm. If the seeding holds, Coronado will play Thursday evening at the same time, probably against Torrey Pines. Somewhat ironically, both the Girls and Boys lacrosse teams face Poway in the quarter-final round in a Coronado vs. Poway doubleheader. The CIF Finals are slated for 7 pm Saturday at Helix Charter High School.

Boys Lacrosse Dominates Eastlake 17-5

While watching the peerless Coronado NJROTC Color Guard parade the Colors across Niedermeyer Field Saturday afternoon, Your Natterer noticed that the Islander Boys Lacrosse Team, (17-2) ranked No. 1 in the state, had 26 players in uniform for their first round playoff game against Eastlake. The Titans, ranked No. 16 in the county, had 14 players prepared to wade into the fray. Parity has penetrated the ranks of Girls Lacrosse, but clearly the concept hasn’t made the leap to the Boys Lax side quite yet.

Another way to look at the score of this contest is CHS Varsity 10, CHS JV 7, and Eastlake 5. Coronado scored the first 14 goals of the game and Islander Head Coach Alex Cade, substituted liberally throughout. Coronado was the beneficiary of hat tricks from senior midfielder Sean O’Brien and freshman attack George Bailey. Two-goal scoring efforts were turned in by the trio of Bobby Braun, Alex Bookout and Jacob Lujan.

Single goals came from Eddie Vita, Jackson Cusick, Nate Wilson, Tommy Hart and Andrew Ovrom. Goalies Peter Zeller and Connor Wade shared time between the pipes.

Coronado, which has not lost a game in-state all season, will now host their long-time rival Poway in the quarter-finals. In years past, this has been an all-out, physically bruising match-up. The rivalry exists due to the fact that the players and coaches have been competing against each other through the middle school ranks and over into club contests. Throw out the seeding considerations, this game should be intense.

If form holds, Coronado will play at home Thursday evening at 7:30 pm, with the CIF Finals to be played at 5 pm, also at Helix Charter High School.

CHS Swim Program Completes Season, Boys CIF Runners-Up

The CHS Swim Team’s season came to a conclusion last week, with the San Diego Section CIF Prelims held Wednesday, May 20 and the Finals held the morning of Saturday, May 23 at Rancho Bernardo High School. CHS Head Coach Dave Throop provides a re-cap of the final week of competition. “Both the Boys and Girls teams had plenty of opportunities to swim fast and race well at the end of the season. 

The format of prelims is that the top six swimmers in each event move to the championship finals and the next six competitors, or those who finish in the seventh to 12^th places, swim in consolation finals. The Islanders posted a slew of personal best times and qualified multiple swimmers for both the championship finals and the consolation finals held Saturday.  In summary, Coronado won the boys 200 medley relay, the boys 400 free relay, and in individual performances, the boys won the 50 free, the 100 free and 200 free. 

First on the Girls side in the 200 free, Kathryn Bailey swam a personal best time in the prelims with a 2:05.00 and followed that effort with a 2:05.53 in the consolation finals.  Kelly Ronimus swam a good time of 1:56.60, earning her a fifth place finish.

Sometimes things happen in the prelims that have an effect on the outcome of the finals, and the girls 50 free was an example of that concept.  In the prelims, Ashley Young had a technique problem that pushed her into consolation finals, rather than into the championship finals.  In the consolations, she won the heat in 25.10 which would have been good enough for third place in the championship final. 

However, sometimes one teammate’s missed chance is another’s opportunity. Young’s missing the championship event, presented Maddie Murphy with an opportunity.  Coming out of the prelims, Maddie was seeded sixth and in the finals, she swam a 25.23, which was good enough for fifth place overall.

In the 100 free, Young returned to form and swam a good time of 53:36 for fourth place, while Ronimus swam a 53.42 and finished in fifth place. In the 500 free, Bailey clocked a time of 5:32.36, which was a 3.1 second drop from her prelim time and put her into the eighth position. 

Our 200 freestyle relay squad was comprised of Murphy (25.03), Hillary Estrada (26.56), Ronimus (24.80) and Young (24.38). They posted an overall time of 1:40.44, would have won the event by over a body length. However, there had been an illegal exchange during the relay and due to the false start, the time and placing were disallowed.  As heartbreaking as that may have been, the girls swam the way we hoped and accomplished the goals we set. The goals were to race and try to win the heat, and to swim their best times in the process.

Looking at the times in the 400 free relay posted in the prelims, we felt that we had the opportunity to finish anywhere from sixth to first, because there were several variables in the event.  Murphy led off and swam a 55.13, which was her personal best time, while Bailey finished her high school experience with her second best time of the year in a 58.25 (57.75 in prelims). Ronimus swam a 53.49, and Young finished out the race in a 53.73 which totaled 3:40.45 and was good for fifth place. 

On the Boys side, the team swam really well. They raced their opponents and their goals of beating someone or anyone and to move up a spot or two to score team points was handled really well. For their efforts the Boys team finished in second place at the meet, a mere 29 points behind Division II champion La Jolla. As the Coaches would say, there was only ‘a couple of divers difference,’ as we didn't have any divers and the Vikings were fortunate to have multiple entrants in the event.

In the 200 medley relay, Coronado won the event as Andrew Ireland led off with the backstroke portion in a time of 24.78. Francisco Heredia followed with a 27.80 in the breaststroke, Adam Ratcliffe swam a 24.60 in the butterfly, and Rex Butler swam the final leg in 21.19 in the freestyle to post a composite 1:38.55, just off their CHS and Division II record, set in the prelims of 1:38.45.

There wasn’t much recovery time for Ireland, as the 200 free is the first individual event of the meet, immediately following the 200 medley relay. Andrew swam a blistering 1:39.92, which won the event.  It was a race the he sought, went after and won in a school record, just off the Division II record of 1:39.37 and 1.5 seconds of the CIF San Diego Section record of 1:38.44 set in 1989. Tommy Schofer, named Sportsman of the Meet, swam a personal best 1:48.68 and finished in ninth place.

In the 200 individual medley, Michael Aguilar swam a nice time of 2:01.95, just getting touched out to finish seventh overall. In the 50 free Butler won the sprint event in a time of 21.15, just off the Division II record of 21.14, yet Butler finished with a school record as his consolation.
 In the 100 fly Ratcliffe swam a good 54.27 for his final individual swim, placing fifth overall. 
Butler returned to the pool and swam an outstanding 100 free, setting a new Division II record in the process, in a time of 46.25, shattering the old Division II record by nearly a second. In addition, he set a new school record in the event.

In the 500 free Schofer continued his impressive performance dropping a total of four seconds between the prelims and the finals, to set his personal best to time in the event with a time of 4:57.22. It was an outing that good enough for 10th place. 

In the  200 free relay, Ratcliffe (23.53), Aguilar (22.45), Schofer (22.40), and Paul Pedrotty (22.30), swam a third place time of 1.30.73. In the 100 back Andrew Ireland swam a great race and placed second to the record holder of the event, never backing down, in a time of 51.44. Heredia swam a personal best time of 1.01.00 in the 100 breast, which was good for eighth place overall. Seeded second to La Jolla in the 400 free relay and swimming immediately after his 100 backstroke event, Ireland led off with a 46.12, which was good enough to give Aguilar a body length cushion as he swam a 48.71 in the second position.  Schofer swam a great 48.69 on the third leg, while Butler swam a very nice 46.49 and held off a charging La Jolla squad.  The Islanders finished in first place with another Division II record time of 3:10.1. If memory serves, that puts them either first or a close second all-time at Coronado High School. It was a very good season and it's nice to see the efforts and attitudes of all the athletes pay dividends.”

Valle Reaches CIF Boys Golf Finals

Junior Alex Valle withstood blustery winds approaching 20 miles per hour on the par 72, 6,900-yard Warner Springs Golf Course last week to shoot a fine round of 76 to advance to the finals of the CIF Golf Tournament. “Alex went out and battled,” said Head Coach Randy Coutts. “He did his thing and earned another day in the sun.” Both literally and figuratively.

Wednesday Valle will compete with a total of 88 golfers, as the second round of play includes the Top 10 finishing teams from the preliminary round, as well as the next best 28 individual golfers not playing for one of the aforementioned teams. The final day of competition includes a shot gun start at 9:15 am with all of the competitors on the course.

Track and Field

CHS Head Track Coach George Green provides commentary on his team’s efforts in the CIF Prelims held at Mt. Carmel last Saturday. “There were some great performances and there were a few disappointments as well. Such is the nature of the sport that if you're not healthy or ‘on’ during the day of the big meet, you go home.

Our best performance of the day came from sophomore Sadie Gimber who sped to victory in her heat of the Division II 400-meter run with a personal record of 59.05 seconds. The purpose of the prelims is to seed the top Division I (larger schools by enrollment) and Division II (smaller schools) heats for next week's CIF Finals. The top nine competitors from all heats and both divisions of the prelims are placed in the ‘A’ heat. The top three finishers from next week’s ‘A’ head finals advance to the state meet in Fresno.

Gimber ran in the first 400 meter heat of the day, followed by another Division II heat, then three Division I heats, all populated with the fastest girls in the San Diego Section. As we watched the heats progress, it became apparent that there would not be too many times faster than Sadie's mark. The final results placed her first in Division II and sixth overall from both divisions combined (all of San Diego County). She'll compete in the ‘A’ heat this weekend at the CIF finals.

It may seem that Sadie is newcomer to the track program but she's been on the CHS cross country team for two years and was one of our key runners on last season's CIF championship team. However she couldn't finish track last year because of a nagging soccer-related injury. Now that she's healthy she's just starting to realize her potential as a long sprinter and perhaps as a mid-distance runner. Her 400 meter time Saturday was the second fastest ever run by an Islander. Only current 400 meter and 800 meter record holder, Samantha Piper, has run faster.

Cassie Callahan competed in three events including the long jump, the triple jump, and the 300-meter hurdles. Her marks were a bit off in the jumps, but she posted a personal best time in the 300 hurdles with a time of 48.01 to advance to Saturday's Finals.

Teammate Maddie Danielson didn't make the cut with her time of 49.73, but she is the third alternate. All three of our entries in the 1,600 meters, Annie Lovering, Sallie Privett and Adie Davies, advanced to the finals with times in the 5:19 range. Davies also advanced in the 3,200 meters, placing sixth in the Division II race with as time of 11:58.5.

Also advancing was Briana Giorgione in the pole vault, but our boy's entrant, Will Bartsch ran into some bad luck and no-heighted at his opening height. Danielle Swanson didn't advance in the 100-meter hurdles but she did produce a personal record in the event with a time of 17.88.

After setting a personal best mark in the 800 meters last week, Katie Centeno came down with a bug that kept her from repeating her performance at CIF.

CHS Top Senior Athletes Announced

Wednesday the Top 16 senior athletes at Coronado High School will be honored by the Rotary Club of Coronado. The list for the Class of ’09 includes:

Alexandra Adamson (water polo and swimming), Kathryn Bailey (water polo and swimming), Bryan Crabb (football and baseball), Mackenzie Coutts (golf and soccer), Jackson Cusick (soccer and lacrosse), Andrea Davis (soccer and lacrosse), Keith Englehart (football and baseball), and Christian Herrera (futbol and football).

Also to among those to be recognized are: Jackson Hummeldorf (water polo and swimming), Melissa Humphrey (volleyball, basketball and lacrosse), Peter Kittiyasawadi (soccer), Blake Malkemus (football, basketball and baseball), Mason Mills (football and baseball), Sean O’Brien (basketball and lacrosse), Jonathan Poe (lacrosse) and Sandra Shepherd (soccer and lacrosse). Congratulations to the honorees on their fine athletic careers at CHS.

CHS Softball Enters Division IV Playoffs

It was an interesting roller coaster ride for the CHS Softball Team last week, as they concluded their regular season with a 10-7 win over Mission Bay. That sounds like a routine victory, until you factor in the fact that the Islanders trailed 7-3 at the end of the fifth inning.

That didn’t prove to be an insurmountable problem as Coronado, fueled by a grand slam homer from Nicole Aguilar, rallied for the Western League victory. Aguilar went 2-3 for the game, and Shannon Julius was 2-4 at the plate for the Islanders.

Then it was on to the CIF playoffs, with 16 teams qualifying in Division IV. The format is the first game is a ‘play-in game’ or single elimination. One loss at this point and your season is over. The Islanders were seeded No. 6 and thus hosted their play-in game, against Holtville. A brief two weeks earlier, Coronado bested Holtville in an extra-inning, one-run affair.

This one wasn’t as nearly that close as Islander hurler Brianna Feist pitched a no-hitter and her teammates bunched together six hits to win 3-0. Feist walked three of the first four Viking hitters she faced to load the bases and at the outset, it looked like it was going to be a long afternoon. However, with one out, a comeback bouncer to Feist was turned into a pitcher to home to first double play and the Islanders escaped unscathed.

In the bottom of the first, a walk to Julius, a single by Sandra Cepin and a two-run RBI triple from Kayla Englehart put Coronado on the board 2-0. The Islanders other run came in the sixth inning on Englehart’s second triple of the day and an RBI single from Olivia Nebo.

While all of this was going on, Feist was able to locate the home plate umpire’s floating strike zone, striking out five Vikings along the way. Feist would not walk another hitter after the first inning. “She kept them at bay,” said Islander Head Coach Tony Isabella of Feist. “She’s a good leader and a good pitcher. To her credit, she learned early in the game that she needed to make adjustments and she did.”

The bottom portion of the roller coaster ride occurred Saturday when the Islanders traveled to Christian High School for their second playoff game and fell to the Patriots 8-0. “They were ranked No. 3 in Division IV,” said Isabella of the Christian High squad. “And I can understand why. Our lack of hitting hurt us. We had the bases loaded with nobody out in the first and then struck out three straight times. That took us out of the game from the very beginning. We were swinging at bad pitches and we were over anxious.”

Due to the double-elimination format, the Islanders are still alive and will host Palo Verde (12-8) Tuesday at 3:30 pm. The two teams have a common opponent in Holtville, which both Coronado and Palo Verde beat twice. “Our player potential hasn’t been touched and we’re only going to get better. I know the girls will be ready.”

Isabella noted that on the JV level, Alana Pompa finished the season for Coronado by no-hitting Mission Bay, allowing the Islanders to finish with a 6-7 record. The team was under the direction of Head Coach Jay Kruer and assistant coaches Doug Barker and Mike Pompa.

Islander Baseball Earns No. 1 Seed in Division IV

In a season distinguished by outstanding pitching and intermittent hitting, the CHS Baseball Team emerged with the No. 1 seed in CIF San Diego Division IV last week. In addition to having a strong 18-10 record, including a 9-3 mark in the Western League, the Islanders split their two-game set last week against the County’s No. 1 ranked team Cathedral Catholic. “Beating Cathedral assured us of the No. 1 seed,” said Islander Head Coach Sam Ceci.

Their first game was a 7-6 loss at Cathedral, which saw the Islanders trail 6-0, before rallying for a six-run, fifth inning to tie the score. Keith Englehart became the latest addition to the “Chicks Dig the Long Ball’ Club, with a two-run bomb to highlight the Islander comeback.

Ceci liked the way his club battled back. “We played well and showed a lot of character. We scored more runs off of (Cathedral ace) Ryan Wilkins in that inning than he had given up total during the season.”

Thursday Coronado hosted Cathedral and the game was similar to the first game, with the roles reversed. In the home half of the first, a single and a stolen base by Mason Mills were followed by an RBI single from Englehart. Justin Parsons then drove in Englehart with an RBI double.

The big Islander rally came in the four-run third, when Englehart, Parsons, and Kyle Couture all singled, Ryan Shepherd was hit by a pitch, Sean MacDonald singled and Blake Malkemus singled. When the smoke had cleared, Couture and Malkemus had an RBI each, while MacDonald was credited with a pair of runs driven in. The Islanders would need every run as the Dons mounted a furious comeback in the sixth and seventh innings.

With two runs in, two runners on and two outs, centerfielder Englehart made what Ceci described as ‘the catch of the year.’ “When it was hit, I thought there was no chance it was going to get caught. That was spectacular.”

At the crack of the bat, Englehart sprinted from left-center field to right-center field, with the well-struck ball tailing away from him, toward the right field line. Approaching the warning track, the speedy senior made an all-out horizontal dive and snared the ball. A brief moment of hushed silence was quickly followed by cheers and applause from the Coronado crowd and grudging admiration from the Cathedral fans. Simply stated Englehart’s catch saved the game.

Another fine play was turned in by catcher Blake Malkemus, who threw out Cathedral two-sport star Tyler Gaffney on a stolen base attempt at second. The play was thought to be the first time all season that Gaffney had been caught stealing.

Mason Mills came in to save the game and the victory for starting pitcher Bryan Crabb, finishing the game by striking out the Dons cleanup hitter. The two-game series featured the eventual Division III No. 1 seed Cathedral against Coronado the No. 1 seed from Division IV.

The good news is that if the Islanders continue to win, they won’t have to leave their home field until the CIF Finals. The bad news is that their half of the bracket features what Ceci believes to be the three best teams in Division IV in Coronado, Christian and Mater Dei.

Tuesday Coronado hosts No. 16 seed Maranatha High School in their play-in game, with the first pitch slated for 3:30 pm. If form holds, the Islanders will host the winner of the Francis Parker vs. Mountain Empire play-in game Wednesday at 3:30 pm.

Water Polo Reminders

Saturday, May 30 at 6 pm, the USA Women’s National Water Polo Team, will host the Canadian Women’s National Team in a FINA Women’s World League preliminary match at the Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Center. Tickets are available at the USA Water Polo website and cost $7 for adults and $5 for children. Tickets will also be available at the door and will cost $10 for adults and $7 for children. Buy your tickets now to see world class water polo in Coronado.

CHS Boys Water Polo Head Coach Randy Burgess forwarded a reminder that there will be a Boys’ water polo clinic put on by current Division I Men’s Water Polo Head Coach Jack Kocur Friday May 29 and Saturday May 30 at the Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Center. Kocur is also a member of the coaching staff for the 2009 World University Games Water Polo Team. The clinic is open to all returning high school male water polo players in San Diego County. For additional details regarding the clinic, please contact Coach Burgess at 522-8907, Ext. 2804.